I had the opportunity to watch the Unforeseen at Barton Springs pool this week. The Documentary focuses on the development around Barton Springs.
I really liked how the film payed homage to Barton Springs. The film itself was shot beautifully. Many of the shots of nature focused on the smaller elements that make up Barton Springs. For instance they used a lot of images of insects, and water.
Everything was in so much detail that it created this really great contrast that exists between nature and development. I found the film to be slanted in its political view, very liberal. The director mentioned later that she was more focused on doing a service for the community and that she received a lot of criticism from the people who were interviewed. It was very clear who were the good guys and who were the bad guys.
One of the characters, I believe he was a lobbyist in favor of development, was portrayed as this mysterious villain. His face was never shown during the interview, instead he was shot from the neck down, and the camera pretty much focused on him building military model jets.
The most powerful character for me was a humble farmer out in Hutto. The film progresses over a couple of years as the development continues. We first see him in his natural serene environment. We watch him farm and tend to his livestock. Little by little he is bombarded with industrial machinery and throughout the film his world is demolished. The landscape changes from his farm land into a master planned community. The most powerful image is one where he is standing with his back facing the camera, with a tool in his hand, and in the background there is a monstrous machine digging and demolishing the farmland in the background. I think that image for me pretty much captured the entire tone of the film.
Although the view was slanted, for me it served its purpose.
I think viewing it at Barton Springs was a great experience because I was able to watch it with a lot of other Austinites who obviously were interested in preserving the springs. I enjoyed the booing, the cheering and the laughing. We all seemed to share the same platform on the springs and it made the screening much more meaningful for me.
6 comments:
Yeah it was definitely an awesome experience viewing this documentary among like-minded individuals, at least when it comes to preservation and anti-commercialization. All these suburban developers need to be boycotted and put out on the streets instead of praised. They line their pockets and reap the benefits while mother earth and the rest of us get pillaged. I loved this movie and Willie Nelson is always entertaining. Good Job Laura and special shout out to maddy akers, i believe she was the associate producer. I cant wait till their next project because I might work on it.
oops, did not mean to delete the last post ... what better place to show a film on barton springs! laura dunn who made the film is a UT graduate. her graduate thesis film called GREEN won a student academy award. would anyone like to have Laura as a guest in class? If so let me know ... and then I will also know you are reading these comments.
Have Laura come to class! Yeahhhh, that would be neat!
I really enjoyed the atmosphere at the springs for this film! The weather was great and there was a really good turn out. The cinematography of the film was amazing, I loved the tracking shots. I also loved the interviews with the "mysterious villain" where his face is never shows. This is a very powerful piece with a very obvious agenda.
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